


Well. Shit.

by TheUnnamedOne



Series: "Well. Shit." [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Blood Magic, Blood magic is its own warning, Canon Rewrite, Creative freedom with magic, Cults, Eventual Inquisition, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Torture, The Author Regrets Nothing, This is a long ass story, Varric needs more love, dont hug me im sobbing, idk how to tag im sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2019-07-11 10:22:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15970367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUnnamedOne/pseuds/TheUnnamedOne
Summary: Varric was almost worried as he watched her down yet another mug of ale. He remembered what she was like when they found her; scared, injured and hating herself just for being a mage. He wondered just how much had changed in the years since then to turn her into this deadly alcoholic mess sitting in the tavern with him. "You know, one day they are going to write about you, Nug. About the Inquisition and all the enemies that tried to take us down." She paused at his words and turned careful eyes to him. He leaned back and held her gaze. "What do you think they'll say? At the end of it all? Do you think we'll be seen as heroes, statues made for us like Elissa and Toris?"Runa scoffed and put her mug down, signalling a worker for another one. "Varric, you know I love you but. If you think this has a happy ending then you haven't been paying attention."-----AKA that one time that the templars were right and blood mages are assholes.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had posted this a while ago, had a read and decided I wanted to rewrite some things. It didn't occur to me that I could simply edit the damn post and I ended up deleting it. Oh well. 
> 
> The first few chapters are set before Inquisition, and then the story will move to follow the events of the game. This entire thing was created because I was bored with the backstories given for our Inquisitors, and then it sort of spiraled out of control. RIP me.
> 
> Keep an open mind yeah? Bioware had a shit ton of blanks that needed filling in and I have done my best.

Chapter One

_“What has magic touched that it hasn’t spoiled?”_

__

“Hey, hey calm down. You’re ok, we’re here to help.” A hand reached forward but halted at the frenzied thrashing before them. “We killed them. You’re safe now.” His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes and his body was tense with the effort to not move too fast. It didn’t make a difference.

“Hawke,” a tired and short sigh. “She very clearly does not wish for you to touch her.”

“I’m going to pretend that isn’t offensive.” Contrary to the words, Hawkes voice was heavily insulted as he finally took a step back towards the door.

“That’s not what I ….” The next sound was a frustrated groan. “You are a mage. And we just saved her from being sacrificed. By mages.”

Dulled green eyes stared in complete terror at the two men in front of her as they spoke. They had indeed killed the mages keeping her here; Hawke wasn’t lying about that. She had watched, stunned as the two had barged into the room and a slaughter had begun. While the prospect of being saved from this place was both oddly terrifying and a relief, it was a thought she hadn’t entertained in who knows how long and she took shuddering breathes of panic through her dry mouth. Hawke had used magic to kill the occupants here. The black haired mage was filthy with signs of the battle and yet he had an aloof smile on his face as he surveyed the room. She didn’t trust these men, especially the mage.

“Just… just step away from her. Go see if Anders needs help or something. I’ll see if I can calm her down.”

“Alright bossy. Work your Elven magic.” She violently recoiled back into the worn chair. A split second after the words left his mouth Hawke turned back wearing a scrunched face with detailed worry. “Ah. No, wait. He’s not a mage. I am but he’s not. He actually hates mages you know. Uh. I was making a joke. Bad timing I guess since you—“

“Hawke!”

“Right, right, sorry!” He jogged out of the room and the Elf sighed deeply with his face in one armoured hand.

“I apologise. My…companion doesn’t always take everything seriously.” He walked forward slowly, stopping when she tensed and continuing when she appeared to relax a bit. “My name is Fenris.” She blinked at him silently while he continued his careful walk towards the center of the room. “Would you like some help getting out of that chair?”

Immediately she remembered the restraints and her eyes wrenched away from the Elf to stare at the thick leather straps securing her arms in place. They were tight, tight enough that they had begun to cut into the skin of her wrists. The mages had secured her arms in a positions that made it easy for their knives to tap into a fresh vein when necessary and her eyes frantically clicked from one cut to the next as if she was seeing them for the first time. She knew without looking that her legs were in the same condition. Tears she hadn’t noticed before were heavy as they fell from her face, remnants blurring the sight of her body. She closed them and nodded once.

Fenris let loose another sigh, this time quiet relief. “Alright. I need you to sit still for me please. Just relax. I’m not going to hurt you.” Refusing to look at him while he moved closer she focused on trying to calm her breathing. He had said relax. Her efforts nearly failed when she felt the air of a blade against her arm; heart leaping to her throat and breath quickening she listened to the sounds of his armor as he went about the task of cutting her free with quick but steady movements. Only when her arms and legs were free and she could feel him shuffling backwards a few inches did she finally opened her eyes.

They sat in silence for a moment, both adjusting and ready. Fenris was preparing for her to bolt, while she was waiting for this to be revealed as some kind of new experiment by the mages. How long had it been since she had no restraints on her arms and legs? She didn’t know. But she wouldn’t put it past them to give her just a small taste of freedom, only to rip it away while they took notes. Fenris softly coughed as she stared at her mangled arms. Mangled, but free.

“What’s your name?” He slowly stood and she felt her face moving up to watch his movements; his eyes remained on her for the most part, though they did glance around the room a few times. They lingered on the various runes carved into the walls, the bodies around them, the blood stains on the chair. “Where you a slave?” The carefully controlled anger in his eyes was plain for her to see and she frowned at the question. A slave? Her fingers twitched and she shook her head. The smallest twitch of his eyebrow and he breathed slowly out of his nose. “Not a slave. Why were you brought here?”

She wasn’t a slave. There wasn’t much that she was certain about but she was certain with that. But. What _was_ she doing here? Why had they done this? How long had she been here? She didn’t know. All she knew was the ritual. The spells. The blood leaving every single injury and her screams filling the room. The stale air and the sickening promises they had made. She looked at the mutilated skin on her fingers and felt fresh tears run down her cheeks. Why couldn’t she remember?

Her jaw opened and closed a few times in thought as an inkling returned through the haze in her mind and she raised a hand to gesture weakly at the dead mages. Fenris briefly looked at them, then turned back to her. “Did they bring you here?” She nodded and desperate to leave the carnage tried to stand. She must have been sitting there for a long time because within seconds she was starting to sink to the floor. An arm wrapped around her waist and one of her arms was carefully placed over shoulders, narrowly avoiding the armor. Fenris tensed up a moment afterwards. “Sorry. I acted without thinking. I can find some place for you to sit if you like?” He turned his head to look around. “Though it’s seems the magisters weren’t too fond of furniture.”

She concentrated on breathing, on not panicking at the heat coming from another person’s skin on hers; concentrated on keeping the vomit from escaping up her throat. _Breathe in. Don’t think. Breathe out. Don’t think. Breathe in. Don’t think. Breathe out._ She shook her head and pointed at the door while stiffly moving her feet forward. She wanted to leave this place. “Okay, I understand. Just take it slow okay? You’ve lost a lot of blood.” They began the inch-by-inch trek out of the death filled room. She didn’t look back. _Breathe. Don’t think. Breathe._

****

“Most of these pages seem to be in some kind of code I think. Either that or whoever wrote them was absolutely insane.”

Hawke raised an eyebrow at the gibberish on the page. Anders was the insane one if he truly believed this was some kind of code. He tossed another book in the other mages direction and scoffed. “I’m guessing it’s a bit of column A and a bit of Column B. I mean, you’d have to be insane to be performing blood rituals in a creepy run-down mansion in the middle of a swamp.”

“Hawke. It’s not a swamp.”

“Well whatever. Flooded garden, overgrown cemetery, out of control pond. Serious crime against yard maintenance. My point is still very valid. This place? Screams crazy-hermit-with-no-friends. Well, except for the other mages here I guess.”

“Hawke are you taking offense to the presence of blood magic or their choice of venue?” Anders grabbed the book Hawke had just thrown towards him, flipping through the pages while they spoke.

Hawke squinted at Anders. “Are you telling me this place ISN’T a stereotypical location for blood magic to run rampant?”

A hand tiredly ran through short blonde hair and Anders turned to Hawke. “Just out of curiosity, what location would you consider then to practice blood magic without proving you’ve lost it?”

Hawke stopped stacking and restacking books and looked at the ceiling in thought. “Definitely on a beach. Or maybe not. The sand would get everywhere. Demons would be so insulted being summoned with sand blood. Maybe in a room full of cushions. Then again I guess all the blood would soak into the cushions and the ritual would be ruined. Maybe that’s why Tevinter mages are always so cranky. Their rituals are always thwarted by satin pillows. Oh wait no I got it. Definitely in a --”

Anders shook his head and sighed. “Forget I asked.”

“Well anyway. These guys at least were clearly insane. Look at this page.” He brought the open book over to Anders.

On the page were recipes for poultices, combined with small spells to make the mixtures more effective. Hawke read out the notes next to each recipe in a dramatic and deep voice. “’ _No changes to mental state. Still ineffective as a conduit. Naru insists more sessions with the new mix will make the suggestions take root.’_ So, they were trying to brainwash someone with a poultice? Creepy.” He flipped a few more pages. “Ooooh this ones worse. ‘ _She’s been screaming for 4 days. The blood will be tainted if this continues. Potion ineffective in producing results, only makes her scream until she is choking out blood. Had to heal her throat before she drowned.’_ See? Insane. And that’s actually really gross. What a terrible potion. Or how ‘bout this –“

“Maker, give me the book Hawke.” Anders flicked through the various notes on the recipes in silence while Hawke crossed his arms and tapped his foot. “Well the notes don’t appear to be written in any particular order. The only thing I can really tell from this is that they were attempting to find a way to make a sacrifice willing. None of these ended up working I’m guessing, but I can look through it more clearly at the clinic.” Anders put the book with the others that they would take with them. “See if you can find anything about the symbols on the walls. I’ve never seen them before and they were all over that room.” He resumed looking through the pages.

“I suppose I can do that. We really should have brought Merril. She knows more about this than –“

A rough voice called through the building. “Hawke! You might want to come look at this!”

Hawke pursed his lips at being interrupted and Anders shrugged. Leaning against the door Hawke looked at the stairs leading to the upper level and raised his voice to be heard. “What is it Varric? I was in the middle of a discussion about—“

“Hawke. Seriously. Come up here and look at this.”

Hawke groaned and trudged up with the stairs with Anders close behind.

“You know, Varric, it’s really creepy hearing my name being yelled out in this place; you could have come down to get me.” He nearly ran into the dwarf when he turned the corner at the top of the stairs. “What’s got your….” His voice trailed off as Anders came to stand next to him in the doorway of a large bedroom. Anders sucked in a harsh breath as Varric glanced up at him, waving his arm at the contents of the room.

“Hey Blondie you’re a healer. How much blood do you think is in the human body?”

The two mages stood completely still, staring in shock at the knee height buckets lining the floor. Anders finally found his voice and walked forward with a disturbed expression, sizing up the buckets. “Well, surprisingly we don’t have as much blood in us as you might think. The buckets are about the same size as the pottery in The Hanged Man. I’d say that from an average sized person you could … maybe fill half of one of these.” Anders paced, skimming his eyes over the tops of the buckets and judging how full each one of. “It would depend on the size of the person though.”

The dwarf clicked his tongue at the information and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well. How many buckets are here?”

He began counting silently when Hawke whispered “19. There’s 19 buckets here.” Clearing his throat and steeling his resolve Anders gingerly dipped his finger into one of the buckets. “It’s uh. It’s cold but still fresh.”

“Right. Now here’s the creepier part. Where are all the bodies?” Varric shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I haven’t found any, and frankly I’m not really sure I want to. I had to pick through 5 locks to get to that room full of blood; these guys were crazy possessive about not letting anything happen to it.”

The mage frowned deeply at the mystery before them. How many bodies would they find if they looked carefully through the property? And what did they need all this blood for? Varric cleared his throat and walked to the door. “I’m going to go let Fenris know we might have to go on a body hunt; best let Blondie do his examination and go from there.”

Hawke nodded, for once not having anything to say. He simply watched as Anders carefully went around the room muttering and carefully picking through all the buckets in the room. The blonde eventually walked back to the doorway with and shook his head in confusion. “Hawke. All of this blood is fresh. They would have had to kill around 40 people to harvest this much blood. Also the symbols in this room are the same as where we found that girl. What is going on here? Hawke?” Anders touched the mans elbow and that seemed to break him out of the daze.

“Uh. I guess I’m going to go look for bodies then? See if we can get an identity off any of them. Their families would be worried I guess.” He cleared his throat and headed back downstairs. Anders stared once more into the room before closing the door and following.

****

“I don’t know how long they’re going to be. We can go outside if you’d like?” Fenris had set the young girl down on a seat by the entrance. She was panting and leaning heavily on the wall with glazed over eyes; clearly she hadn’t moved in quite a while. The elf crouched in front of her and carefully looked her over. There were cuts along her arms and legs, deep bruises on her wrists and throat, and her clothing looked closer to a thick layer of dust than actual fabric. “How long have you been here for?” The question was whispered, he didn’t really expect a response. The girl had understood his questions but it didn’t seem as if she was going to speak.

Fenris stood and started to pace slowly. She wasn’t a slave, she appeared to have been here for a while, and those mages were definitely from Tevinter families. He had recognised some of the house crests on their clothing while he and Hawke had killed them. He frowned, thinking back to the fight. It hadn’t been much of a fight. The mages didn’t seem to be very strong, which didn’t make sense since they had been in the middle of performing blood magic. He glanced at the girl. It also seemed like they were only taking blood from her, and slowly. _‘Not trying to kill her then. What were they doing with her?’_

“Oh is this her?” Varrics voice came from behind him and Fenris stopped pacing. The dwarf walked over slowly, not wanting to frighten her; though it didn’t seem to matter as she was still staring into space blankly. He hoped that they hadn’t just signed her a death sentence by removing her from that room. Who knew what kind of long term mental issues she would show from what she endured? For all they knew she would kill herself once she had a moment to clearly think about what had happened. Or go on a murderous rampage to cope. Fenris hoped that they were properly equipped to help this girl but their chances weren’t looking great with so little information.

He nodded at the dwarf, crossing his arms and watching intently for any reaction she might have. “Yes. She hasn’t said anything, and she needs medical attention, though I have no idea where Hawke has gone to.”

“Ah, last I saw him he was staring slaw-jawed at a room that held a whole shit ton of buckets of fresh blood.” Varric started fiddling with a pouch. “I have a drink here that Blondie made up earlier, might give her the energy she needs to get back to the clinic.”

“Hmm. Then maybe I’ll see if I can find those two idiots to let them know that we need to get her –“ His voice was drowned out as a high pitched shrieking filled the space around him. He immediately put his hands to his ears and looked between Varric and the girl. “What did you do?!”

Varric had dropped the potion to cover his own ears, yelling to be heard over the screaming. “Nothing! I got the bottle out and walked towards her and now she’s doing her damnest to impersonate a nug being slaughtered!”

The girl had flailed, throwing herself back along the seat as far as she could go until she landed on the floor with a loud _thump_. Her scream was momentarily cut off before it started again while she scrambled backwards. Fenris forced his hands off his ears and walk in front of Varric, blocking him from her view. “Hey. Hey! It’s okay. He was trying to help it’s alri—“

She was still screaming and curled into a ball when Anders rushed past him. “What the flaming hell have you two done?”

“We didn’t do anything! Don’t go near her!” His usual irritation at the mage was intensified by the blonde shoving past him.

“She needs healing, the wounds on her arms have reopened!” Anders raised his hands and magic started glowing softly from his palms. Her eyes locked on his hands and she started sobbing while she was screaming and Fenris could clearly hear one word through the noise.

“No!! No no no no no no no!!! NO!”

She couldn’t back away any farther and whatever Anders was saying to the girl was doing nothing but make her panic harder. Fenris made a snap decision and grabbed the coat in front him. He launched the mage to the ground behind him and moved to crouch in front of her, once again preventing her from seeing the others in the room. “I understand. Hey! I understand, I won’t let them touch you. No magic. Please stop screaming.” He repeated his words over and over until the only sounds coming from her was sniffling and soft whimpers. Her hands were over her head and she stared at him through tears and ripped cloth. “It’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Well. I’m guessing she’s afraid of mages.”

The elf turned briefly to stare at Varric with a “No shit”, then returned to attempting to calm the terrified girl down.

“So….how are we going to get her back to Kirkwall?” Varrics question was met with a groan from Anders, a nervous chuckle from Hawke and a quiet sigh from Fenris. The girl remained in her position on the floor, not taking her eyes off the elf in front of her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

“ _I would drown us in blood to keep you safe.”_

 

Anders ducked behind one of the beds in the clinic, just barely dodging the cup that was thrown in his direction. “Now there’s no need for that. Just let me—“A plate was thrown this time and he flinched as it crashed into the wall behind him, shards dancing around on the floor. He groaned and peeked over the top of the cot to glance at his patient at the end of the room. “Please don’t throw anythi—ACKH!” A book whizzed past his ear and he took a deep breath. This was ridiculous. He was hiding in his own clinic from a girl who couldn’t even stand properly. _‘Where the hell was Hawke when he was needed? Or Fenris for that matter?’_ He closed his eyes to keep calm and dashed to stand around the corner, just as another book hit him in the head.

“OH FOR THE LOVE OF ANDRASTE!” He rubbed his head and listened for any indication of the girl throwing anything else. Maybe if she couldn’t see him… He inched to the edge of the corner. _Thunk. Thunk._ Nope okay that wasn’t going to work. Two more books flew past and if he had moved any further out then he would probably have a bloody nose by now. _‘Come on, think Anders!’_ He sighed and raised his voice a fraction. “You know, I’m only trying to help you!”

“NO!”

“Oh so you CAN speak. Brilliant. Wish you would say something other than the word no,” he muttered. He heard movement from the area she was in. “Please do not try to stand! You’re still very weak and I’m sure Hawke will be back any seco—“

“NO!!!”

“Ok, ok. No Hawke. Can I at least help you get some water?”

“NO!!!”

Anders was very quickly losing patience. “Look I understand that you’re afraid, and probably confused but you really need to understand that –“

“NO NO NO NO!”

“Alright I get it. No. All you say is No. I’m sure you and Fenris will have a lovely conversation consisting of simply that one word.” 

Silence. Anders raised an eyebrow. Had she decided to stop yelling now? _‘I really hope they come back soon. I can’t help her if she won’t let me even in her sight.’_ He slid down to sit on the floor. “You know. It’s terribly uncomfortable here. I would really like it if I was allowed back into my clinic.” 

“No.”

“Yes well I do have other things to do. I can’t sit here all day and listen to you say ‘no’ over and over again.”

“No.”

“Lovely.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. This was getting nowhere. Why had he agreed when Hawke suggested leaving the girl here while she was passed out? Why the hell had Fenris agreed? He had been adamant that neither of the mages go anywhere near her the entire trip back to Kirkwall. He guessed Marian had something to do with this mess. “Right well I guess all we’re going to do is wait here quietly and uncomfortably until Hawke an—“

“NO!”

He grit his teeth. “Until Hawke and Fenris come back.” Nothing else was heard and Anders rested his throbbing head on his knees. _‘Dammit hurry up and come back.’_

 

****

“So I was thinking.”

“Oh joy. Did it hurt?”

“Fenris why are you so mean to me?”

“It’s my favourite way to pass the time.”

Hawke crossed his arms and scowled. “Uh-huh. Well. Anyway. She needs a place to stay.”

“Yes, most likely. I doubt she can stay at the clinic.”

“Dammit that’s where I was going to suggest putting her.”

“You’re a very special kind of idiot aren’t you?”

“You’re so unbelievably rude!”

“Varric says that it’s my best quality and it makes the ladies swoon.”

“You realize that Varric literally gets paid to make things up right?”

“This hurts me.”

“No it doesn’t. BACK TO THE IMPORTANT ISSUE. Where is she going to stay? I mean. There’s plenty of spare rooms at the estate but—“

“That is a terrible idea.”

“Well then what? The Hanged Man? Avelines’ house? No wait. Scratch that. Aveline would never agree to that.”

“Hawke why do—“

 _THU-WHACK!_ “OH MY FUCKING GOD OW WHAT THE HELL?!”

Fenris could only blink in surprise as a book was thrown through the doorway of Anders clinic, smacking Hawke right in the nose. He didn’t have to take too long to figure out where it had come from, as Anders rushed through the door mere seconds before another book was hurled through. _‘Well she has good aim for a half dead human.’_ He snorted, watching Hawke hold his nose and glare at the offending book while spewing all manner of profanity. Anders was doing his best to explain what was going on but really all the Elf heard was a long string of whining littered with “Are you okay?” as he tried to heal Hawkes nose through all the squirming and cursing. Fenris chuckled while picking up the two books and walking inside the clinic.

The girl was sitting on one of the beds with another book raised to defend herself when she saw him walk in calmly. Slowly she lowered the book while keeping a suspicious eye on the door. Fenris gave a small smile and placed the two books he had on the bed next to her, moving to sit in one of the chairs.

“Did he try to use magic on you?”

The girl grimaced and shook her head with a soft “no.”

“Ah. Then why did you throw books at him? Don’t get me wrong, I’m overjoyed that you gave that mage a hard time. And it was very amusing watching Hawke get hit in the face. But still. If they didn’t touch you then there’s not really any need to throw things at them, is there?” He spoke in a soft voice, not harsh or stern. He spoke to her as if they were simply having a normal conversation.

The girl scrunched up her face in thought while staring at the book in her hand. Biting her lip a few times with a frown she finally shook her head at his question. The books got set in a neat pile at the end of the bed, still within range for defence and yet far enough away that she would not throw them automatically.

Fenris smiled at her again. _‘Just have to keep her calm I suppose.’_ He leaned forward and started talking to her in the same soft voice about various things. _‘Don’t treat her like an animal or a leper. Treat her like a normal person. Who has survived being sacrificed in a blood ritual. No problem.’_

 

****

 

Anders was keeping his gaze through the door into the clinic while speaking to Hawke. Fenris had somehow managed to calm the girl down and convince her to move the books away from her immediate throwing range. That was good. Maybe now he actually had a chance of going inside. He checked on Hawkes nose before standing. It had stopped bleeding now, and there would only be a few bruises around the nose that would show what had happened.

“Hey why the hell didn’t she throw a damn book at Fenris? That’s really not fair.”

Anders sighed. “It’s probably because he’s not a mage.”

“Well that’s just plain rude. I helped save her too.” Hawke was pouting and Anders simply shook his head and walked into the clinic with a deep breath.

The girl had begun watching them as soon as they came into view, but she made no move to throw things. _‘That is a very good sign’_. Anders couldn’t hear what Fenris was saying to her but whatever it was, it was working because she only slightly tensed as they walked closer. He watched as the elf reached forward and put his hand on top of hers for a very brief moment. She didn’t relax but she did give a small nod. Fenris turned to the two mages.

“She’s going to let you bandage her. But no magic.”

Anders clicked his tongue. “It would be easier and more efficient to cast a healing spell.”

Fenris stood and crossed his arms. “No magic.”

Putting his hands up in defeat the mage went to get the equipment he would need. Hawke simply sat at one of the tables and watched quietly. _‘Well that’s surprising. He almost never shuts up.’_ When he had everything he needed he went back to where the girl was sitting. Out of the corner of his eye he saw another person enter the clinic. He didn’t have to guess who it was, however, as Hawke immediately jumped up.

“Marian! I thought you were busy today?” The man wrapped one arm around his sisters shoulders and grinned. She sighed in response and pushed his arm off of her to walk over to where Anders and Fenris were sitting with the girl.

“I made time. Fenris told me you rescued someone from blood mages and I figured I should come down here to try and help. Can’t leave her in the hands of you idiots.” She stopped walking to turn back and squint her eyes at Hawke. “What the hell happened to your face?”

Hawke was going to respond but Fenris spoke up before he had a chance. “He got hit in the face with a book while he was walking in to the clinic.”

Marian laughed. “Ah you look ridiculous brother. But good. I’m glad _someone_ finally smacked you good.”

“That is really hurtful Marian.”

“You’ll get over it. Now.” The woman pulled a chair in front of the girl and sat in a relaxed position. The girl watched wearily. “I’m Marian. It’s nice to meet you, Fenris told me all about how brave you’ve been.” Anders tuned out the rest of whatever Marian was saying. She was doing the same thing that Fenris had done, talking to the girl in a calm and friendly tone, and it made his job of bandaging her much easier.

Cleaning the cuts on her arms made her flinch numerous times; and he noticed that she was forcing herself to not move and keep her eyes off of him and what he was doing. _‘Understandable I guess; still, at least she isn’t throwing things or screaming anymore.’_ The wounds that were visible were fairly deep, they would take a long time to heal without magic and they would most likely give her a bunch of twisting scars. The chafes and bruises around her wrists would be gone in a week if she was careful, and he couldn’t examine the marks on her neck too much in case she started freaking out again. Someone she trusted would need to keep an eye on the bandages and help her. He was in the middle of wrapping a bandage around one of her arms when he felt it.

Justice stirred uncomfortably, and there was an odd sensation coming from his hands. _‘What is this… Is it residual?’_ Carefully, so as not to alert her, he concentrated on the feeling coming from his hands. The more he tried to ‘feel’ it, the more confusing it became. The sounds of the clinic died around him as he listened to a barely there hum. He pushed slightly and felt Justice pushing as well; pushed until he was snapped back into awareness by a rough armoured hand grabbing his arm and shoving him back. “What …”

“I told you NO magic!”

“But I didn’t use...” Anders looked down at his hands and was shocked to find his own magic had indeed reacted. A small flickering aura coated his palms. _‘But I didn’t use magic. What is going…..Wait a minute I know what this is.’_ He looked back at the girl who was curled up on the ground behind the bed. Fenris and Marian were both crouching near her, speaking softly and giving him occasional confused glares. “She’s a mage.”

Hawke walked forward. “Are you sure about that? Because she seems to be everything opposite of a mage to me.”

He nodded and spoke firmly when the two warriors looking at him stood with the girl. “I’m sure. I’m more than sure. She has magic inside her. I thought it was residual magic from the ritual those blood mages were casting but no. When I was bandaging her wounds I could feel it. It’s repressed but it’s definitely there.” He felt Justice growing restless. The girl refused to look at him.

Marian spoke up. “Is it possible she didn’t know? Or maybe the magic you felt is dormant?”

He shook his head. “No. It’s not dormant, though I can’t say for sure how much training she’s had. I only know that she definitely has magic, and she definitely would know about it.”

“Maybe she’s an apostate. Ran from a circle somewhere outside the Free Marches? I haven’t heard of any missing mages of her description from the Templars here.” Hawke started pacing when the girl started crying.

“No.” She was starting to breathe heavily and put her head in her hands.

Marian cautiously wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “No? You’re not an apostate?”

The girl shook her head and Marian helped her to sit down. “Were you in a circle?” A nod. “And you didn’t run away?” Another nod and she pulled her head up sniffling. Anders noticed that her face was scrunched and she kept reaching up to grab her hair. _‘She’s in pain. But why?’_ Marian stroked her arm and Fenris sat in front of her.

“Did the mages we found you with take you from the circle?”

The girl bit her lip and frowned. She seemed confused and continued to reach up to twist her hand in her hair. She nodded and then shook her head. Then she simply stopped and groaned, sounding more frustrated than anything.

Anders tapped the table thoughtfully. “Maybe… she has amnesia caused by… whatever they were doing.”

 

****

Three days had passed since the incident in the clinic. It had been decided that the girl would stay in one of the many spare rooms in the mansion Fenris lived in. Aveline was going to do what she could to find a house for the girl but it was proving difficult considering they didn’t even have a name for her. Marian had been spending half her time helping Sebastian and the other half helping Fenris. From what Hawke had told Anders, the room they picked for the girl was now clean, had new furniture and had over a dozen new clothes and books for the girl. Anders wasn’t sure if the books were for her to read or if they were simply giving her a way to defend herself.

As for Anders, he was working near around the clock. Between running the clinic, helping Hawke on various things in town and puzzling together the seemingly random notes from the ritual he was exhausted. And getting nowhere but spinning around in even more questions than he had when he had started. The notes in the potion book had been the only somewhat clear piece of information he could find.

They had definitely been fiddling around with potion recipes, mainly health ones. Some of them had been changed with spells, some made with pots covered in odd runes. Some had ingredients added, some had ingredients taken out and a few of them appeared to be simply multiple recipes combined into one batch. Judging by the comments littering the pages, however, none of them produced the desired effect. _‘But what was the desired effect?’_ The only other pages not written in code were rambling lines that gave him a headache when he tried to read them. _‘Time to get desperate.’_

He bundled up everything he had been studying. After three days with almost no progress, it was time to consult a blood mage.

 

****

“Well, I’m glad you’re asking me for help but I’m not sure I can really tell you anything.”

“That’s fine Merrill. It’s just…these notes don’t make any sense to me and hopefully another set of eyes can help reveal something I don’t see.”

The woman tapped the side of her jaw in thought. “You said that there were some notes that were coded?”

“Yes, but Hawke and I can’t tell what sort of code they could use. We didn’t recognise any symbols or letters used on the pages.” He dug around in the bag and laid the pages out side by side on the table. “These are the notes. I imagine that if they’re in code it must be something important.”

“Alright I’ll have a look.”

Anders nodded and set out the books that he was going to look through. Most of them contained simple spells like keeping food fresh for long periods of time, or pages of history of certain areas. A few coded notes scattered the books but Anders hoped that simply seeing which pages held notes and which ones didn’t would give him a clue about what they were trying to achieve. The two mages continued in silence for a number of hours before Anders dropped his head with a groan.

“Are you okay Anders? Would you like some tea?”

He sighed and turned his head to the side to look at her. He was so exhausted. “Actually yeah I think I will.”

“No trouble at all, I’ll go put the kettle on and you take a break. You look like you haven’t slept in weeks.” As Merrill made tea she babbled on about various things and Anders closed his eyes, listening to her voice but not really registering the words. None of the information they had made any sense. This piece didn’t fit with that piece, and those pieces made that piece redundant. It was maddening, going around in circles like this with no end in sight. There was a cup put in front of him and he raised his head, giving a tired nod in thanks.

“You really should take a break every now and then, Anders. It’s not healthy to be running nonstop for so long.”

He bit back the comment on his mind about her not really being the best judge over what is and isn’t healthy for someone. He still needed her help and even though Merrill wasn’t likely to turn away someone in need, he didn’t want to risk it. He simply drank is tea in silence until there was knock at the door. Merrill stopped him from getting up.

“I’ll get it. It is my house after all, it would rude to send my guest to answer the door.” She chuckled and walked away. _‘Must be some inside joke or something.’_ Anders rubbed his eyes and opened the book in front of him again to have another look.

“Ah so you are here after all. Aveline said you would be.” Hawke plopped down in the chair next to him. “Still trying to figure out our Tevinter mystery?”

Anders raised an eyebrow but didn’t look up from the book. “How did Aveline know I was here?”

“Oh you know, guards talk. Plus I’m pretty sure she’s using her position as Guard Captain to keep tabs on all of us.” He waved his hand dismissively and pulled one of the books over to him. “I never really saw the point in blood magic. So messy. Also risky. No offence Merrill.”

“None taken Hawke.” The elf smiled warmly and Anders wondered if there was anything Hawke could possibly say that she _would_ take offence to.

“Anyway. It’s silly really. What could possibly be so important that a mage would resort to bleeding a person dry and risk becoming possessed?”

Anders rested his head on a hand and sighed. “I don’t know Hawke. A family member, maybe? Or someone you’re in love with? Freedom? Who knows.”

Hawke thought a moment. “I’m still not sure I could ever do that. I mean…I’d sacrifice a lot to protect someone but –“

“Wait a minute.”

Both stopped to look up at Merrill who was staring intently at the coded notes in front of her. Anders frowned. “What is it Merrill.”

The elf bit her lip and seemed to bounce up and down. “Um. What if it’s not a code?” At the blank looks the guys gave her she leaned on the table and pushed the notes to the middle. “What if….what if it’s blood magic hiding what is written here? And maybe that’s why neither of you could make sense of it?”

Anders leaned back silently and Hawke whistled before nodding. “Well. I mean it would make sense. But haven’t you been looking at these notes for hours? You’re a blood mage and you still can’t read them.”

“Yes. But I haven’t done any blood magic on them.”

“So you’re saying that if you use blood magic you might be able to figure out what the pages say?”

“Well. I don’t know. I mean it could be that a particular spell was used, and only that spell will unlock it. But yes. There’s a chance that simply usin—“

“Absolutely not.” Anders said a bit too loud for the small house, shocking the two other mages.

“Anders what if –“

“No Merrill. We are not fixing a blood magic problem with more blood magic.”

Hawke put a hand on Anders shoulder which was immediately shoved off. “Look, I know it’s not ideal but think of it like fighting fire with fire.”

“I’d rather just leave this entire thing in the ashes if our only hope of solving it is to resort to that disgusting act.”

“And then we might never have answers for that poor girl. She might have a family out there who misses her, they might think she is dead!”

“She’s a mage Hawke, and a mage from the circle. She doesn’t have any family anymore or she wouldn’t have been in there in the first place.”

“Anders that’s not necessarily true.”

“What would you know? You’ve never even been to a circle! She’s better off not remembering.”

“Anders!”

“I’m not going to do this!”

“You won’t have to.” Hawke and Anders turned towards Merrill just in time to see her pull a knife out and make a cut on her palm. She whispered something quickly and small tendrils of blood poured out, seeking the pages. Anders moved to grab the notes but was stopped by Hawke. Justice was pushing inside of him, writhing in anger.

“Anders. Please. We need to help her. You want to help your fellow mages right? All of them?”

He punched the table and stalked off to the other room, refusing to see or hear any more.

 

****

 

“So basically, it was an unsealing ritual. I don’t know what they were trying to unseal, the notes were incomplete. But whatever it was, it required a willing sacrifice.”

Anders stood quietly by the door of the mansion while Hawke spoke quickly to Fenris about what they had discovered. _‘I can’t believe I just let that happen. I can’t believe I let him convince me to come here. I can’t believe what that poor girl went through.’_ He was relieved that they had some answers at least. But he was almost certain that if he hadn’t gone to Merrill, and simply spent more time working on them he would have found a different way to get the information. Hawke didn’t seem to mind in the slightest and had dragged him over to the mansion almost immediately. They had even dragged Varric with them, who had been strangely quiet through the debriefing.

“A willing sacrifice?”

“Yeah. They probably couldn’t get her to go along with their plans so that’s why they were trying to make a potion that would ‘convince’ her. The notes were a bit vague on what exactly they were doing but um….fairly descriptive in _how_ they were doing it. It was basically a record of their progress, not the ritual itself. We have no idea where that is.”

Anders stepped forward. “There’s more. And it’s….” he sighed. How was he going to word this? “Remember how we found that room with the buckets of blood?”

“36 buckets to be exact.” Varric walked to sit on one of the benches. “What about it Blondie? Did you figure out where the bodies are?”

“That’s just it. There are no bodies. All that blood, every drop, was hers.”

Fenris and Varric stared at him in silence for a moment. Fenris was the first to speak. “That’s impossible.”

Varric snorted. “Don’t ever become an author, you are terrible at making up stories. Stick to your ‘mages rights soapbox’.”

He grit his teeth and chose to ignore that comment. “I didn’t want to believe it either. Normally, it’s very impossible. But they apparently needed a certain amount of blood from a willing source. The blood all needed to be from the same bloodline, and fresh. I’m going to take a guess and say that she doesn’t have any family members. They had adjusted spells to keep the blood fresh, and had been taking as much as possible without killing her for a long time.”

Nobody said anything. Anders was looking anywhere but at the faces that were staring at him and Hawke eventually cleared his throat awkwardly. “Sooooo. Yeah. Well that’s why she was there. Still no clue who she is though. Probably doesn’t really matter now; I doubt the circle will take her back even if we explain the whole ‘kidnapped by Tevinter mages and tortured for Maker knows how long’ thing.”

“All that blood… how long was she there for?” Fenris’ expression was a mixture between horrified and enraged. Not too far from his default expression to be perfectly honest. “Does it tell you how long she was there for?”

Anders shook his head. “No. We could probably figure it out eventually, or she could tell us when she remembers. But the pages didn’t have any dates on them nor did they have any indication of how long any of this took. We did find out that they were almost done with the ritual. They only needed a bit more blood, and for her to be willing and they would have succeeded. Its lucky we got there when we did.”

Hawke gave a dry laugh. “Yeah, lucky we didn’t ignore that crazy drunk noble babbling on about some Tevinter mages acting shady outside of town.”

Fenris gave him a blank stare. “You were going to ignore him. I was the one who told you we should investigate.”

“Details, details. Anyway we still don’t know what to do with her or who she is. Has she said anything to you?”

Fenris shook his head. “No. Marian and I have tried everything to get her to talk, but she still won’t speak. We don’t even know what to call her, it seems a bit rude to just call her ‘girl’ all the time.”

“We could give her a name. Varric? Any suggestions?”

“Hawke. I’m pretty sure she already has a name.”

“I mean, just until she tells us what it is.”

“Runa.”

Silence flooded the room when a soft voice came from the staircase. They all turned to look at the girl who, despite being tense and clearly uncomfortable, was walking slowly to stand beside Fenris.

“What did you say?” Anders asked, wincing at the way she flinched at his voice.

She clenched her fist and cleared her throat. “My name…is Runa.”

 


End file.
